236  Remeios  and  BlbUograpMcal  Notices.  {^^Mty  tmt""* 
the  leaves  of  Vaccinium  vitis  iclaia,  Lin.  Our  attention  was  again  called  to 
ihis  paper  on  reading  the  inaugural  essay  of  Mr.  Jungmann,  published  in  this 
number,  page  202.  A  comparison  of  Claassen's  process  with  the  processes 
used  by  Strecd^er  and  Kawalier,  for  the  preparation  of  arbutin,  will  show  that 
they  are  almost  identical.  As  far  as  it  goes,  the  description  of  the  properties 
of  vacciniin  agrees  with  arbutin  ;  products  of  decomposition,  experiments  on 
the  glucoside  nature  of  vacciniin,  &c.,  are  not  mentioned.  As  far  back  as  1859 
Ulolh  obtained  from  the  aqueous  extracts  of  various  ericaceie,  ericinon,  which 
Zwenger,  H e-^se  and  Himnielmann  subsequently  proved  to  be  identical  with 
hydrokinone,  which  is  a  decomposition  product  of  kinic  acid  and  of  arbutin. 
The  fact  that  kinic  acid  has  been  prepared  from  one  or  two  species  of  vacci- 
nium is  no  proof  that  arbutin  may  not  occur  in  the  same  plants,  or  in  plants  of 
the  same  or  an  allied  genus.  Bence,  the  probabilities  are  in  favor  of  the  sup- 
position that  vacciniin  and  arbutin  are  identical. 
EEVIEWS  AND  BIBLIOGEAPHIOAL  NOTICES. 
The  Causation.  Course  and  Treatment  of  Bejlex  Insanity  in  Women.  By 
Horatio  R.  Storer,  M.D.  Boston:  Lee  &  Shepard,  publishers.  187L  23G 
pages. 
This  is  a  reprint  of  a  report  made  by  the  author  to  the  American  Medical 
Association  in  1865,  and  which  he  was  authorized  by  the  Association  in  1867  to 
republish  in  book  form.  The  subject  is  treated  under  the  following  headings  : 
L  Selection  of  special  topic.  2.  Points  previously  attained.  3.  Work  to  be 
done,  4.  The  brain  the  seat  of  insanity,  not  always  of  its  cause.  5.  Explana. 
tions  of  distant  causation.  6,  OausatioH  often  pelvic  in  women.  7.  Rationale 
of  pelvic  causation  of  insanity.  8.  Lrdications  of  treatment.  The  last  three 
chapters,  occupying  two-thirds  of  the  pages  of  the  book,  are  the  most  important 
of  the  special  subject  of  this  memoir,  and  evidence  a  great  deal  of  labor  and 
research. 
Report  of  the  Board  of  Health  of  the  City  and  Port  of  Philadelphia,  to  the 
Mayor,  for  the  year  1870.    Printed  by  order  of  the  Board.    1871.    8vo,  112 
pages.  V 
This  report  contains,  besides  lists  of  all  the  officers  connected  with,  the 
department,  reports  and  statistical  tables  of  the  work  done  by  and  under  the 
authority  of  the  Board,  vital  statistics.  &c. 
We  learn  that  Philadelphia  is  cleaned  at  a  much  less  cost  per  mile  than  New 
York  or  Boston,  but  we  have  not  comparative  statistics  of  the  cleanliness  of 
the  streets  of  the  three  cities.  Among  the  reports  of  the  physicians  of  the 
port,  the  lazaretto  and  the  municipal  hospital,  we  find  several  treating  on 
relapsing  and  yellow  fever,  which  diseases  became  epidemic  in  certain  confined 
localities  in  the  lower  portions  of  the  city,  the  yellow  fever  having  been 
imported  by  the  brig  "  Home"  from  Jamaica.  A  separately  paged  essay,  cov- 
ering 86  pages,  by  Dr.  R.  La  Roche,  is  appended,  and  treats  on  the  origin  and 
mode  of  progression  of  yellow  fever  in  Philadelphia.  With  a  populationr 
according  to  the  last  census,  of  674,022,  the  nftortality  in  the  city  during  1870 
